Madison, Highland development given more time

Neighbors express displeasure, lack of confidence

July 08, 2013|By Wes Venteicher, Chicago Tribune reporter

A rendering of a planned retail and office complex on Madison Street. (Handout)

The Oak Park Village Board recently approved a developer's seventh request for more time to break ground on a planned retail and office complex on Madison Street, even as neighbors denounced the project's delays and design.

The board's decision gives River Forest-based Nevin Hedlund Architects 18 months to break ground on a four-story building that will take up two blocks and will include an elevated parking lot above South Harvey Avenue, which is near Highland Avenue.

The parking lot is unpopular among neighbors. David Kralik, who lives on Highland, told the board the development would create a "cavern at the end of our block." Moreover, the project's delays call into question the developer's ability to successfully complete it, Kralik said.

Nevin Hedlund, the building's architect, assured the board his firm could successfully manage the project. Hedlund blamed the economic downturn for the delays.

"If we had as great a market as we did four years ago, we wouldn't be here today," Hedlund said. "However, as you know, for the last four years it's been very difficult."

Now, Hedlund said, the economy is improving. His firm is negotiating with two potential office-space tenants. If those negotiations are successful, the firm would seek a restaurant for the ground level on the east block of the project.

The board originally approved Hedlund's proposal in 2009. The board at the time overturned a Planning Commission recommendation to deny the project. Several of the commission's members said the elevated parking bridge was "not in character with the surrounding neighborhood and diminished the enjoyment of the residential properties to the south of the proposed development."

The board's decision in 2009 had to do with the property's air rights, Hedlund said at the meeting. His firm bought the property from the village before drawing up plans, and the right to build in the air above the ground came with the property, he said.

The parking span will help the developer provide 151 parking spaces. According to Oak Park's building codes, which state there should be a parking space for 75 percent of the number of employees, the complex should provide 351 parking spots, Village Planner Craig Failor told the board. The 2009 board allowed an exemption for the building, after the developer said far fewer than 350 parking spaces would be needed.

At its July 1 meeting, the board determined that if it voted against the project, the developer would have to start from the beginning, and many of the same issues probably would resurface — including the developer's claim on its air rights.

Trustee Peter Barber, who was not on the board in 2009, asked whether the board might have formed a joint public-private partnership with the firm instead of selling the property outright. Trustee Ray Johnson responded that the public has shown its distaste for such arrangements in the past.